A death

Prof. Dr. Janos A. Szirmai died in his 89th year on 2 December 2014.

The following is posted on behalf of Barbara Hassel, Conservator,
Germany and IADA (International Association of Book and Paper
Conservators).

Janos Szirmai is well known to all of us through his publication
"The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding", which is essential
reading for all professionals interested in historical bookbinding
techniques.  He studied Coptic, Byzantine, Islamic, Carolingian,
Romanesque and Gothic bookbindings with meticulous precision and
diligence in libraries all over the world.  He collected numerous
reference books for his personal use, studied all the relevant
literature and sought scientific exchange with international
specialists in the field.  Striving for perfection, he created this
outstanding standard work and teaching tool using an academic and
scientific approach combined with his exceptional skill in putting
down in drawings what he saw.  His approach both questioned and
added to the common practice of merely describing bookbindings by
their decorative stamping tools.

J.A. Szirmai wrote numerous articles for different professional
journals including Magnus, Quaerendo, Bindereport and New
Bookbinder.  He contributed to an illustrated terminology in the
Dutch in 1992 (Kneep and Binding, KB Den Haag).  He was a dedicated
lecturer at conferences and different international universities and
professional colleges.  He supervised the scientific research of
master or magister students dealing with special features of
historical bookbindings such as metal fittings or limp bindings. His
ideal of an ageing-resistant book with optimum functional features
led him to promote the so-called "conservation binding" which,
thanks to the Blaubeurener Empfehlungen in 1991/92, became a
standard requirement for the preservation of historical bookbindings
in conservation science.

He was highly motivated to study how historical bookbindings
function because he saw the mechanical failure and breaking joints
of the so-called French bindings, which are considered to be the
highest professional standard of bookbinding.  To him they seemed
merely suitable as decoration.

Following his first career as a renowned medical scientist at the
beginning of the 1970s, he devoted himself auto-didactically to
calligraphy, typography and bookbinding.  He joined the Centro del
bel libro in Ascona, Switzerland, where he practiced fine art
bookbinding with Martin Jaegle.  His superb manual skills and
artistic designs were rewarded with the Prix Paul Bonnet in 1975,
and his fine art bookbindings were on show at numerous international
exhibitions (BDBI, MDE, IBA etc.).  In 1984 he edited a catalogue of
his fine art bookbindings for an exclusive exhibition at the
University Library of Amsterdam (Boek Band Kunst) and in 1987 he was
invited to take the Tielen Chair at the University of Amsterdam in
order to give a series of lectures to students and colleagues from
different fields.  Together with his wife Mia, he ran a small but
excellent art bookbindery for many years in Oosterbeek in Holland.

I first met Janos Szirmai in 1988 when I was asked to assist him
while he studied the Carolingian bookbindings at the Badische
Landesbibliothek Karlsruhe.  At the time I was employed there and
responsible for the conservation of books and paper.  He invited me
to participate in his research and introduced me to the wonderful
world of the technical details of these bookbindings from the 800s.
I was impressed by his respectful approach and analytical abilities,
his detailed documentation and profound scientific background.  Over
the years I profited immensely from listening to him at meetings and
professional get-togethers.

After I had taken up the role of head of workshop at the study
program "Conservation of Works of Art on Paper, Archival and Library
Materials" at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart in 1993, I
assisted with his lectures and hands-on seminars.  Once he decided
to retire from travelling and teaching, he asked me to take on his
commitments.  In the following years we spent many weeks in his
atelier, going through his slides and entering the information in a
database, thus transferring his profound knowledge to me and
developing specialized lectures.  All these weeks we were pampered
with food and beverages by Mia, and spent the few short breaks
watching and identifying the singing birds in their backyard. Since
then I have been giving lectures on the basis of his "Archaeology"
in different universities, libraries and archives in Germany,
Denmark, Switzerland and China, since 1998 as a freelance
conservator.  Many times I reported to him on the lectures and
travelling experiences, and he enjoyed the fact that his knowledge
is being kept alive and passed on to young professionals.

After Mia informed me of his death I was devastated and very sad to
lose my valued friend and mentor.  But I am consoled by the
knowledge that he had a successful, full and satisfying life and
departed in peace--even though he could not finish his summary of
research on the chain library Zutphen, which he told me about on my
last visit.

Janos Szirmai was cremated on 5 December 2014 in Oosterbeek and his
loving family gave him a good send-off.

Barbara Hassel
Frankfurt/Main Germany


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 28:30
                  Distributed: Sunday, January 4, 2015
                       Message Id: cdl-28-30-001
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